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Honors Program

Pacific's Honors Program supports special academic programs and extra-curricular programs designed to enrich the social, cultural, and intellectual lives of our students. Freshmen Honors students are encouraged to participate in the residential program by living in one of the Honors Residence halls, John Ballantyne House or Carter House, though the Honors activities sponsored by these houses are available to all Honors students.

Participation in the Honors Program is by invitation; each student who is accepted to the University is considered.

Generally, inviteess have a a combination of high grades and test scores, but the program also consider students whose backgrounds suggest some unusual talents that regular transcripts and scores cannot reveal. About 15-20% of the freshman class participates in the freshman program.

The program administrators also invite students to join the honors program after their first semester as freshmen at Pacific if they earn a 3.5 GPA or better. Currently, there is no honors program for transfer students.

The academic program is supplemented with direct and indirect encouragement to participate in various kinds of extra-curricular activities.

Honors colloquia: Students are asked to attend on average one "colloquium" per month from an extensive list published regularly. Traditional academic colloquia, such as guest lectures, of course make the list, but also include musical and theatrical performances and museum exhibitions. These events are among the features of the program that students come to like best. They help students see that a university's intellectual and cultural breadth and richness extends far beyond the classroom. The colloquia form is available online and a link will be emailed to students periodically.

Off campus events: a limited number of off-campus events are offered each year to encourage students to take advantage of the resources of Stockton and of northern California. There is a yearly Honors Retreat, and occasional forays to San Francisco, the Calaveras Big Trees State Park, etc.

Leadership and service opportunities: Students are engouraged to get involved in tutoring, student government, and off-campus service.

Students are expected to maintain high academic standards throughout their four years and to take all required courses in order to have university honors noted on their transcripts. Every honors course carries an honors notation on university transcripts, so students will get credit for whatever part of the program they complete.

Students in the professional programs

Some students in professional programs will take advantage of the freshman/sophomore honors opportunities and then move on to work in their majors, but participating in the entire four-year program is still considered more advantageous. We will work with students in these programs to help them complete the honors program while focusing on their accelrated studies.